Page 27 of Her Filthy Cold Billionaire Boss

“Oh, honey, could you be a dear and run to the wine cellar for me?” She pressed a note into my hands. “They’re well marked. You’d be my saving grace.”

I should have been suspicious, but I wasn’t.

Nope, I just walked right into the pantry, then to the door to the cellar.

Unlike the movies I’d seen, this cellar was well lit. The cool pressed to my warm cheeks and I inhaled deeply the scent of wood and chill, all the while trying to keep from thinking about the boss. Or Gram. Or anything, really.

The cellar was bigger than my first apartment as I scanned the space. Racks of bottles stretched from floor to ceiling, labels written in a dozen languages and all of them at least a decade out of my price range.

Then I caught sight of him.

Perched on a wooden crate was Leo, the one person I thought I’d been lucky enough to escape for a day.

He grinned. “Well, hello. You want me to carry, or just supervise?” With a sweep of his arm, he gestured at the wine.

I eyed him, annoyed already. “You’re volunteering to work? Who are you and what have you done with Leo?”

He slid off the crate, planting both feet. “Maybe I just wanted company. Or maybe I wanted to see if the new girl can tell a Barolo from a pinot.”

“Is that a test, or a threat?”

He moved closer, close enough that I could see the shadows under his eyes. “Depends. You want it to be a threat?”

He said it playfully, but I caught the edge in his voice. The last time I’d seen him, he’d been on the receiving end of a nuclear-grade glare from Gareth, and today he was dialed up to eleven. I scanned the racks, searching for wine in hopes he’d get the point.

He didn’t.

So I pushed back.

“You’re not the first person to hit on me in a wine cellar, you know,” I said, keeping it light.

He leaned in, hand braced on the rack above my head as I turned to face him in surprise. “But am I the best looking?”

I hesitated. Then shook my head. He stepped back, his eyes narrowing slightly before he let out a laugh. “Sassy little lady, huh.”

I stepped to the side, but he followed.

“You ever get tired of it?” he asked suddenly. “The games?”

I blinked, my brows scrunching together in a way I knew would give me wrinkles if I didn’t stop it. “Which games?”

“His games. The boss. Always watching, always pulling strings. You ever wish he’d just say what he wants?”

I was thrown. Leo wasn’t supposed to talk about Gareth.

“I don’t know what you mean,” I lied.

Leo chuckled, a low, knowing sound. “Yeah, you do. You’re smart. You know he’s obsessed.”

I felt my cheeks flush. “He’s not obsessed. He’s-”

“He is,” Leo said, cutting me off. “He’s just not allowed to show it. That’s why he hates me. Because I can. And because there’s something between us.”

There was a beat. I couldn’t move. The cold of the cellar pressed in from all sides, but I felt sweat bead at the back of myneck. I didn’t want this. But I didn’t want to start drama and get fired, either. The contract was clear, and I was tiptoeing a line I didn’t know how to escape.

“Are you going to kiss me?” I said, voice too high.

He didn’t smile. “Do you want me to?”